Venezuela: Former Bank Official Pleads Guilty in Bribery Case

By WILLIAM NEUMAN

November 18, 2013

A former executive at a Venezuelan bank pleaded guilty in a New York federal court on Monday to charges stemming from a scheme in which she took bribes in exchange for steering millions of dollars of the bank’s business to an American brokerage firm. The executive, María de los Angeles González, 55, agreed to cooperate with prosecutors, suggesting there could be further revelations about corruption at the government-controlled bank, the Economic and Social Development Bank of Venezuela, known as Bandes. A plea agreement signed by Ms. González indicated that the corruption she was involved in went much further than previously revealed and that she admitted involvement in several other payoff schemes at Bandes and another government-run bank where she worked as an officer, Industrial Bank of Venezuela. The agreement said that the charges that Ms. González pleaded guilty to carried sentences totaling up to 55 years in jail. Ms. González was arrested in Miami in May.